American Red Cross

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Problem analysis:

Misuse of authority: Lack of and over watch, a system that allow miss management. And restructure is an important step. The training and the leadership in higher levels is very crucial in the making of an organization. And when communication fails to reveal the problems and the top management try to cover up the problem instead of facing and changing the situation, escalates into a variety of preventable problems.

Causes of the problem:

- Lack of leadership.

- Lack of training.

- Lack of over watch committee.

- Absence of checks and balances program.

- Lack of communication.

- Money and book keeping mismanagement

- False claims and cover-up instead of taking appropriate corrective actions.

What we learned from the literature reviews:

Lack of experience was blamed for the mishandling of the disaster relief and the rebuilding efforts. They had the resources but not the experience they were blind in the process. They lied in the fabrication of numbers for the records, they spent millions of dollars in aid while failed to deliver what was promised. The assistance was not there. When they lost the confidence of achieving their goal, they switched their process into acting like they are doing the efforts but not fixing the problem, providing a false mask to cover up their short coming.

Possible solution:

- Truth and transparency reporting, utilize the local resources instead of spending 10 times the amount on outsourcing learn from other successful systems that is in the work which provided the aid needed under a successful business model and structures, provide good leadership and training that will guide lower chapters a successful balanced process. Learn from past mistakes instead of focusing on covering up the problems as it grows larger from lack of response.

Who must implement the solution?

The government should have protective laws that force such leadership into implementing the check and balances programs and the over watch agencies should monitor the process to deter any misuse of funds allocation and have a more useful benefits to the disasters victims.

Solution and implementation:

What should be done short term;

What should be done long term;

Justification:

In accordance to the course concept this is why I think the implementation suggested should work. The over watch and reconstruction of the organizational workflow, should help eliminate some of the problems. Good leadership and proper training should increase the chances of a healthy organizational behavior.

Supporting quotes;

- REV. Daniel Delgado and John Roccocarlo. From 3 day missions church Pentecostal church. quoted “we had to give Red Cross Workers Blankets.” in the flood of NJ 2012 Hurricane sandy.

- Richard Rieckenberg (Red Cross Official) quoted “they lost their confidence in doing what needs to get done and now they turned into making people think they are doing what need to be done”.

- Laura Sullivan quoted “they had the resources but lack of experience led into not being able to provide what they have promised to provide from aid to relief efforts, they did not have the experience on how to rebuild a city and they did not utilize the locals , the hired employees did not even speak the language of Haiti population they failed to provide aid that was promised, they spent millions without being able to do what NGO and other building companies have done they collected half a billion but built only 6 homes while NGO and other companies was successful by utilizing the local resources and hiring Haiti residence”

- Reference:

- News Politics / standard- July 3-2015 about the 2010 catastrophic earthquake in Haiti investigation NPR –Pro Publica.

- Laura Sullivan PBS News Hour. July 3-2015.about Hurricane Sandy

- Jessie I zinger, Jeff Brown covering Hurricane Sandy and Isaac in OCT, 2012

- Pro Publica, NPR investigation Richard Rieckenberg (Red Cross Official) covering RI flash flood. and NJ flooding

- Red Cross history/ American Red Cross.org

- REV. Daniel Delgado and John Roccocarlo. From 3 day missions church Pentecostal church.

- Gail MC Govern MS-NBC news nation Nov 11-2012

- Money .how stuffworks.com/ controversy and conflict – how American Red Cross works.

- Red Cross.org/ governance/American Red Cross/ Red Cross congressional.

Conclusion:

The reoccurrence of such mistakes over the history of the organization shows that there has not been a proper process to address the problem. in order to fix the problem we need to take a closer look at the organizational behavior over the course of the years as the organization grew the lack of addressing the root of the problem led to improper solutions, the superficial treatment applied over the years proven that they have been only treating the surface problems and not the roots, the easiest way which is blaming the president and forcing them to resign one after another without a solid plan to prevent future repeated events, leaving the public lacking the trust and had the organization under fire for misuse of funds and inappropriate allocation of resources. It is not easy to fix such problem but it starts with proper planning and implementing the solution that was adapted as a result of learning from past mistakes. Clear communication paves the way to a successful organization, as well as a well spelled out guideline and a process that is outlined the goal and the scope of the operation and the proper steps that need to be taken in order to accomplish the mission.